London has been battered by 50mph winds that have felled trees and caused travel chaos. Powerful gusts swept across the capital as the Met Office issued a yellow "be aware" weather alert for most of the country.

A fraudster who claimed £29,000 in benefits despite owning properties in France and Wales has been jailed.

Graham Axford, 58, was sentenced to 16 weeks for falsely claiming council tax and housing benefit over an eight- year period.

He failed to tell Croydon council he owned a home near Newport and part-owned a farmhouse in Normandy.

During his trial he claimed to have sold the Welsh property and transferred ownership of his farmhouse to his wife. But he was found guilty of three counts of fraud by false representation.

The council discovered the fraud following an anonymous tip-off and will now launch an investigation into whether he made any other gains from his criminal activity, to see if any more money should be confiscated.

Sentencing him last week at Croydon crown court, Judge Peter Gower QC told him: “You owned part of not just a property but a home in France and in 2007 you declared to the council that you were not paying a mortgage. That was a blatant lie. You were paying a mortgage in respect of a property in Wales that you were the registered owner of, and which you later sold, albeit it was in negative equity at the time.

“As a result of your dishonest claims, you have been overpaid benefit.

“It is conceded by the prosecution that your claims were not fraudulent from the outset, but it is quite clear this was a fraud carried out over a significant period of time.”

Axford hit the headlines two years ago when he was exposed during an episode of Panorama sailing his private yacht across the Atlantic despite being in receipt of incapacity benefit for a bad back. It was later revealed he had also participated in a bike race lasting 24 hours but has never faced charges over his receipt of incapacity benefit.